2011 RTNDA Canada Lifetime Achievement Award Winners

TORONTO, March 1 /CNW/ - RTNDA Canada - The Association of Electronic Journalists is pleased to announce that Earl Seitz and Dave Biro will be honoured with 2011 RTNDA Lifetime Achievement Awards in the BC Region.  The awards will be presented at the RTNDA British Columbia Regional Awards Banquet in Vancouver on Saturday, May 28.

Earl Seitz started his career in the Kootenays before coming to Kamloops.  His diverse sports coverage has made him literally an icon throughout the province.  Earl has been a hockey

play-by-play announcer and covered virtually every sport in his long career.  He's done a lot of work covering Paralympics and wheelchair sports.  He's mentored many sports commentators who have gone on to national networks and has been instrumental in exposing a wide variety of sports to the public.  He is fair, dedicated, unbiased, and a man with a great deal of integrity, always putting forward comprehensive coverage.  While he's had the opportunity to move to larger centres and broadcast on a national level, he instead chose to stay in Kamloops, helping CFJC Television become one of the brightest small-market stations in the country.  Earl has also been involved in the selection committees for both BC Sports Hall of Fame and the Kamloops Sports Hall of Fame

Dave Biro is the assignment editor at 'A' Channel in Victoria.  The assignment editor is arguably the toughest job in the newsroom, recognizing and generating strong story ideas while weeding out weak ones, scrambling for spot news, following up on leads, juggling assignments, all the while answering the phone every 30 seconds.  It's not easy and Dave is one of the best in the business.  His news sense is impeccable.  His attention to detail makes him invaluable and his contribution to each day's news is reflected by the awards he's won over the years.  His career spans 30 years in radio and television.  His first time behind the microphone was in 1973 when he broke into radio as a news reader and beat reporter at CFVR in Abbotsford.  He was a former news director at several stations and has taught broadcast journalism at the BC Institute of Technology and Langara College.  He's also served two terms as RTNDA's BC Regional Director of Television in the 1980s.

The Lifetime Achievement Award was created in 2002 to recognize individuals who have distinguished themselves through outstanding service and continued excellence during the course of their career in broadcast journalism.

RTNDA Canada is the voice of electronic journalists and news managers in Canada.  The members of RTNDA Canada recognize the responsibility of broadcast journalists to promote and to protect the freedom to report independently about matters of public interest and to present a wide range of expressions, opinions and ideas.  The RTNDA Canada Code of Ethics adopted by the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council, is used to measure fairness and accuracy in our profession.